Our area of Florida is overrun with debris from Charley. No pick up yet.

[madfloridian]

This is going to cause our city and much of our county to be unpassable if another storm hits. A small park at a nearby college is totally filled with branches and limbs from trees knocked down by Charley and Frances. They line the edges of the street across from the dormitories.

Our street is lined as well with yard trash and tree branches. These will be like dangerous flying objects if another storm hits us.

We live inside the city, in a area which usually gets prompt service in all areas. I dread to picture what outlying areas look like.

Seems from what I read that the two companies contracted to do the regular debris pick-up just are not doing the job. They are Waste Management and Florida Refuse, I think. I guess their contract does not require them to hire on extra folks at crisis time.

FEMA is SUPPOSEDLY paying for the cost of storm pick-up. Well, guess what. We have had two hurricanes hit us, FEMA, and no one has picked up the huge amounts of debris.

The larger trunk parts are not as dangerous, the smaller branches can be devastating.

A fairly typical scene. Not our street, ours is smaller.

[DebinTx]

1. Not trying to further depress you

but after enduring TS Allison in Houston, I'm just warning you, it will take months to get it all cleared up. Local service was overwhelmed and you can see why in your picture, local garbage service usually doesn't have the manpower or the type of trucks (dump trucks) needed to clear that heavy stuff out. Even when the FEMA dump trucks came through, the homeowner had to load what they could. The big stuff was put off til later, which was an additional few months.

Could you possibly burn some of this yourself? Folks here that lived in the county burned much of the tree and branch stuff themselves.

[madfloridian]

4. Burning huge stacks would cause more problems.

Inside the city it is illegal. There is just too much. For people with trucks and those with strong backs there is really nowhere good to take it. They need to make more landfills.

I know it will take a long time. I just know it will be devastation if another storm hits.

They have cut back on FEMA funding, and the thinking ahead part is suffering worse.

Many of our neighbors live alone, are elderly, and simply can not do things like this themselves. And the bad part is there is no one available to do it for them. Most can easily pay for the private services to haul it away. There is no one free yet to do it.

I was not whining, just being realistic.

[Briarius]

2. I mean to post this earlier in another thread

FEMA doesn't have enough help. On a list serve I'm on FEMA was looking for 1000+ volunteers to be paid to go to Florida and help clean up. So I'd say you may be in for a bit of a wait, especially with Ivan coming ashore. Best of luck!

[whistle]

3. I live in the Conway area of Orlando FL and.....

...tree debris pick-up is still not totally complete here. I must admit that trucks and machinery have been coming in periodically taking away large piles of the debris. But, much of this effort is "make-shift" with what appears as landscaper/lawn maintenance trailers built up with side-walls of plywood bound with ropes. So the typical load is modest at best. We do have a home-owners association in our community (250 homes) and the association leaders have been staying on top of the city to come and haul the branches and tree stumps and large sections of hurricane debris away. The latest news on Tropical Storm Jeanne is that although it is following a similar path to Frances, it just could remain close to the Bahama Islands and miss the east coast of Florida. Keep the faith, call your local representative/council-person and most importantly stay calm.

Here is a link I've been using to track the storms:

http://hurricane.terrapin.com/

[madfloridian]

5. We are ok until another storm hits.

The only people taking calls with live voices are our cable company. Our phone company did one day, but not since. City was good about getting power back. However, to report a branch on a wire, my husband had to drive to the city utility. We could not get a place to report anything other than our own home on the automated system.

I emailed the electric company about street lights that are still out. I finally heard back from them, that they would report it for me.

Guess what, our electric company just announced they will lay off a bunch of workers.

Legislators are acting all positive now, like all is ok....so it is useless to call them. They know it is bad.

I think privatization is in play here, but none of us can really get a full handle on it. I doubt the oversight is there.

[fishnfla]

6. The crews have been working hard thats for sure

Its hard, hot work too. I've had 3 piles picked up since Charley. Our streets here in Port Orange were lined, both sides. There is an ungodly amount of debris.

Dont worry madfloridian, we wont get another storm

3 things:

1. I heard on local NPR that FEMA actually this year is not over budget, whether they cut back on the budget or not I dont know
2. Bigger problem: the power companies have depleted their "storm funds" which they had for events like this, and are talking about you guessed it, raising the rates. That ought to put a bee in your bonnet!
3. There may be a gas shortage here in Central Florida soon, so gas up and conserve.

[FlaGranny]

7. We have a lot of debris also

in our neighborhood. The good thing is that most of the aluminum was hauled away in a few days (by folks out to make a dollar by recycling).

All that wood destroyed! It seems a shame that the folks who make OSB and particle board don't get together to clean up that wood and use it - instead of cutting down new trees.

[kerry-is-my-prez]

8. You're lucky. In Palm Bay they have NO POWER and have rampant looting.

I consider myself lucky having only been without power for a day in Naples with a gazillion downed trees. I had to walk up 15 flights of stairs in a high rise to check on my parent's condo.

My neighbors were on a different power grid and were without power for a week. When you live in a place where the weather is in the high 80's and low 90's - that can be brutal and downright dangerous for your health.

Palm Bay looks like a war zone with armed guardsmen in the streets. This is on the East Coast of Florida - North of Miami. Anybody know how it is elsewhere. Anybody know what the story is in Miami, Ft. Lauderdale and Palm Beach?

It's weird that you don't hear anything about it - maybe they don't want more looters coming to the city or don't want things to look bad for the Bushes - who knows....